Keeping my family healthy, keeping my family happy

Homemade Graham Cracker Crunch Cereal

Cereal is my downfall, my addiction. Well I can honestly say now that it WAS my addiction. I have done some reading up on the process by which cereal is made, even organic, and its not pretty. Oatmeal and panackes are good options but I just love crunchy cereal every once in a while. After stating in my homemade graham cracker post that I didn’t think I could make my own cereal, I kind of took it as a challenge to myself. Yes, I am that competitive, it can get ugly, just ask Dave. So far I have made quite a few varieties and I am quickly learning I can do without the boxed stuff. I have made mock golden grahams, cinnamon toast crunch, raisin bran with coconut, almond bran flakes, and granola. Some are still in the tweaking stages, but the golden grahams knock off only took a couple of trials since I based it off my already tried and trusted graham cracker recipe.

Graham Cracker Cereal

makes 9 servings (3/4 cup each)

2 cups whole wheat flour

2 Tbs coconut oil

2 Tbs brown sugar

2 Tbs honey

1/2 cup milk

1 cup water

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Melt coconut oil, stir in brown sugar and honey. Add milk and water. Mix all dry ingredients together then add to wet and stir.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper or silpats. Pour 1/4 of batter on each sheet (will need to make it in 2 batches unless you have a double oven). Spread batter out with back of spoon until it covers almost entire silpat.

Bake at 350F for 20 minutes. Take out, slice into 1 inch squares with a pastry cutter or lightly with a pizza cutter (dont cut your silpats), and put back into oven for 10-20 more minutes stiring occasionally until all pieces are crispy, starting to brown, and are no longer leathery.

Repeat with other half of batter.

Take out and let cool, they will harden a little more as they cool. Store in an airtight container for 1-2 weeks.

Yes, I know this is more work than picking up a box of cereal at the store, but this is about health, not convenience. Just check out the nutritional facts evidence

Nutrition Facts (hamemade version on left, Golden Grahams on right)

Serving Size 56 g vs 30 g

Calories 151 vs 120

Total Fat 3.6g vs 1 g

Sodium 79mg (3%) vs 270 mg (11%)

Total Carbohydrates 26 vs 26 g

Dietary Fiber 1g vs 1 g

Sugars 4.7g vs 10 g

Protein 3.3g vs 1 g

First off, the serving size, although both 3/4 of a cup, the homemade cereal is heavier and denser. That’s what happens when its not pressurized and expelled out a factory machine at high pressures. That density will help fill you up and stay with you longer, so it’s a good thing. I can literally eat half a box of airy store bought cereal.

The sodium and sugars are the main health differences. The homemade cereal has barely any sodium, only 3 percent of your daily allowance. If you have 3 servings of golden grahams, that’s 33% of your daily sodium and very likely not 33% of the total food you will eat in a day.

The sugars are the other difference, with the homemade cereal having half the amount of the boxed stuff.

And another added bonus to help you stay full is that its over 3 times the amount of protein.

You may be saying “but this is the sugary kids cereal so its not a fair comparison”. I used to think the “kid” cereals were naturally worse for you but its often the complete opposite. Compare an “adult” cereal to a “kid” cereal next time you are at the store. Cereals like frosted shredded wheat, cracklin oat bran, and honey bunches of oats cereals often have way more sugar than the golden grahams, honey nut cheerios, or even lucky charms.

I am convinced, so is Alyssa. And Dave is onboard with pretty much whatever I make even if its different at first. He just told me the other day he had a sweet tea and it was way too sweet since he’s not used to eating sugar dense foods anymore. Makes me happy to fuel my family’s bodies instead of stuffing it with processed foods!

I just didn’t approve the last comment so it was never posted with your last name. I have made something similar to a rice krispie but it was pretty time consuming and pretty much impossible to get as airy since I can’t use the extrusion process (which is the really bad part of the processing done in cereals). They were more dense but my kids still loved them

Either melted butter or another oil you feel comfortable using is fine. But my daughter has a tree but allergy too and is fine with coconut oil and coconut itself. But of course you know what’s best for your own and what you’re comfortable with :)